For someone who made his name playing high-minded characters (think Geoffrey Chaucer in “A Knight’s Tale,” Russell Crowe’s surgeon in “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”), it’s curious that Paul Bettany would volunteer to become Screen Gems’ go-to guy for B-grade action movies. He still makes high-minded movies, but it seems to be more of a hobby than a means to an end, while his day job is as Paul Bettany, Ass Kicker. The strange thing is, the move actually works. Goodness knows the 2009 demonic thriller “Legion” benefited from his presence, and “Priest” is no different.…
Author: David Medsker
“The Usual Suspects” is “The Outsiders” of ’90s indie moviemaking. Several star turns were made here, from director Bryan Singer to actors Kevin Spacey and Benicio Del Toro, plus great supporting performances from established actors (and Oscar nominees) Pete Postlethwaite and Chazz Palminteri. We’d include screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie in the lovefest after all, his script won the Oscar for Original Screenplay — but no one has seen him in over five years. The movie begins, in what would prove to be the intro of choice for several more “hook” movies to come, at the end of the story. We see…
There’s something cynical about the very existence of “Bridesmaids.” You can almost see Judd Apatow and his friends having a brainstorming session, and one of them (Seth Rogen, probably), says, “Hey, we should make an all-girl comedy. We’re always accused of not writing good parts for women. Well, let’s have two women write parts of their own!” High fives all around. The scotch flows freely, until Martin Starr pukes in the pool. And to the credit of all involved, “Bridesmaids” has its good points. While the majority of the supporting characters have the depth of stick figures, Kristen Wiig’s scenes…
It’s never easy for any band when creative differences cause the group to split in half; it’s even harder when one of the people leaving the band is the principal songwriter and lyricist. Welcome to the world of Panic! At the Disco (yes, the exclamation point is back), now a duo of singer Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith after guitarist Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker left the band soon after the release of the band’s retrotastic sophomore album Pretty. Odd. Urie and Smith circled the wagons – and brought in pop mastermind Butch Walker to flesh things out…
Welcome to the old school, better than the new school. Some might scoff at the resurrection of yet another franchise, but “Scream 4” couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s clever, funny, and has characters you actually give a damn about (as opposed to, say, the characters in the “Saw” movies, which were just hunks of meat). It’s not perfect, but it’s good, scary fun, a fourth installment that any franchise would be proud to call its own. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) returns to her hometown of Woodsboro to promote her book about overcoming the events that took place…
The problem with “Hop” isn’t its lack of originality, though the movie doesn’t have an original thought in its head. The movie’s real problem is that it’s boring, and not even Russell Brand’s signature back-door punch lines can redeem it. For a film so loaded with talent, nearly every scene is filled with the kind of uncomfortable exchanges that suggest all concerned knew they were making a subpar movie, but plowed through it in as few takes as possible because hey, it’s just a kid’s movie. You can practically hear the director shouting that at the actors before he rolls…
Whatever you might think of “Battle: Los Angeles,” you can bet that the US Marine Corp loves it, because it makes them look like the baddest motherfuckers on the planet. See the enemy, kill the enemy, die with your boots on. There’s something oddly refreshing about a war movie that makes no effort to humanize its characters. Pity the entire movie is made from the parts of a dozen other, better movies, and shot in a manner that suggests the cameraman is riding a pogo stick. The movie takes place in the future (well, August of this year), where a…
It would be curious to see the four or five endings the makers of “Limitless” came up with before they settled for this one, which is smeared with the fingerprints of test audiences and focus groups. Up until that point, the movie was quite entertaining, persuasively arguing the cases both pro and con on using the mind-altering drug that drives the plot. The ending, though, derails everything; it’s pat, cynical, and sends a terribly mixed message about the dangers of drug use, legal or otherwise. Bradley Cooper is Eddie, an author with a book deal but a crippling case of…
There is a reason why “Rango” is peppered with allusions to, and even a cameo by, Hunter S. Thompson. The movie is positively gonzo, a world where moles with jug band instruments ride bats while performing “Ride of the Valkyries,” and mariachi owls serve as both the soundtrack and the narrators. Unfortunately, its reach far exceeds its grasp, and in its quest to give the public something they’ve never seen before, they end up not offering nearly enough of it, filling the gaps with chaos. It’s a film that’s easy to like in spirit, if not in execution. Johnny Depp…
It might look like another “Run, Matt, Run!” conspiracy thriller, but “The Adjustment Bureau” is a surprisingly high-concept affair, where the baddies aren’t incorrigible evildoers but rather the agents of fate itself. Think of it as “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” with chase sequences; the heart wants what it wants, and it’ll be damned if anyone is going to get in its way, no matter the cost. All love stories should be so thrilling. Matt Damon is David Norris, a rising star in political circles whose run for the Senate is dashed by the poorly-timed leaking of some embarrassing…